New Hanover Education

Wednesday

Dec 26, 2007 at 12:01 AM

The holiday season is looking brighter this year for some local families thanks to the generosity of businesses and the Cape Fear Community College Foundation. The Foundation is coordinating a project called Holiday Helpers, which is meant to help out financially needy CFCC students and their families over the holidays."The holidays can be an especially difficult time financially for some of our students with families," said Margaret Robison, Executive Director of the CFCC Foundation.Since many of CFCC's students have families of their own and work so they can afford tuition and books, the financial demands of the holiday season are particularly difficult.Over the past month, 31 local businesses and individuals contributed to the project to help 38 students have a brighter holiday season as well as provided scholarships to help students year-round.Betsy Leonard, a local Realtor with Intracoastal Realty, began the project a few years ago after she joined the foundation board. She got to know some of the students at CFCC while she and her husband were taking classes there and wanted to help."We noticed that there were a lot of people who had jobs during the day and went to school at night in order to better themselves and their families, which shows a great deal of commitment and dedication. They wanted to improve themselves for a better future," Leonard explained.We wanted to provide for the parents while they are providing for the children by getting an education, she said."If we can help them and their children, that's what Christmas is all about," Leonard said.Pam Maloney, an associate in science student, expressed her gratitude for the program after she was treated to a shopping trip for her family."It is such a special blessing to me to see my children's faces on Christmas morning when they open their gifts purchased through the Holiday Helpers project," Maloney said.Laney's winter band concert gives backThe Laney Band, under the direction of Robert Pearson, performed their winter concert Dec. 17 at Roland-Grise Middle School. The band performed five pieces of music, two of which were Christmas selections.Laney Band is very excited to have a new band director this year who is also a 2001 alumni.After the concert, donations were accepted for the Danny Pence Memorial Scholarship. Danny was a Laney Band member who was killed in 1996. Since then every year a deserving senior has received a scholarship in his honor.